1. Field of the Invention
The Present invention relates to an alignment apparatus which aligns a semiconductor wafer to a predetermined posture when taking out an object such as a semiconductor wafer accommodated in a storage container by a carriage robot and delivering it to an equipment such as an inspection apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an alignment apparatus for a semiconductor wafer, there is a technique disclosed in, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 8-215876. In this publication, a semiconductor wafer is taken out from a wafer carrier by a carriage robot and delivered to a pre-alignment apparatus. The pre-alignment apparatus irradiates a flat of the semiconductor wafer with a light beam and photo-electrically converts a part of it, thereby detecting a positional relationship between the flat and an axis X or Y in a rotating direction. Thereafter, the pre-alignment apparatus performs positioning of the semiconductor wafer in the rotating direction based on the detected positional relationship between the flat and the axis X or Y in the rotating direction. The positioned semiconductor wafer is again taken out from the pre-alignment apparatus by the carriage robot, and mounted on a stage of a processing apparatus.
In the above-described publication, however, the pre-alignment apparatus and the processing apparatus are separately provided. Therefore, the semiconductor wafer must be carried from a wafer carrier to the pre-alignment apparatus by the carriage robot, and then carried from the pre-alignment apparatus to the processing apparatus after positioning of the semiconductor wafer. Accordingly, it takes a time to perform each carriage, and also takes a time until the semiconductor wafer is processed.
In a manufacturing field of the semiconductor wafer, there are requests to reduce a tact time of manufacturing/processing. Thus, the time required for alignment of the semiconductor wafer should be shortened.
Alternatively, since the semiconductor wafer is carried from the pre-alignment apparatus to the processing apparatus by the carriage robot after positioning of the semiconductor wafer, there is a possibility that a deviance is generated in positioning of the semiconductor wafer.